Husker_Power
Starter
Like it or not Huskers, you need Buffs rivalry
by, Mark Knudson, a former major-league and CSU pitcher, writes a weekly column for the Coloradoan.
There are an estimated 25,000 Nebraska football fans living along the Front Range in Colorado. Like everyone else, they're anxious for the start of the new college football season that's less than a month away.
But before the first kickoff, this group of Huskers supporters needs to relay a message back to Lincoln. It's time for Nebraska to accept the University of Colorado as its one true, natural rival, complete with all the contempt and name-calling that goes with it.
The reason is simple. Rivalries make college football tick. You don't think of Ohio State without Michigan. Hard to imagine Oklahoma without Texas, or Florida without Florida State. USC may be on top, but their backers get the most worked up for the annual bash with UCLA.
As things stand right now, Nebraska does not have a true rival. Huskers fans still point to Oklahoma, but the two teams only play twice every four years. You can't have a true rival that isn't on your schedule every year. It's sad, because NU vs. OU was every bit as good as Ohio State-Michigan and the others, but expansion and the emergence of the Big 12 squelched it a decade ago.
With Oklahoma only a semi-regular foe, the Huskers are in need. Quick, name a great college football program that doesn't have a rival? Didn't think so.
CU fans have been aiming at the Nebraska game for decades now. It's the Cornhuskers who've refused to buy in. CU fans have long had the necessary hatred for Nebraska, and the game means more to most Buffs fans than any other on the schedule. Look no further than last season, when most Colorado fans took far more pleasure in beating a downtrodden Nebraska team than they did in a monumental upset of highly ranked Oklahoma.
On the other side, Nebraska fans would rather say nice things about Barry Switzer than admit that CU was a true "rival" for Nebraska. And it takes two to tango, as they say.
So will this, can this, mindset change among those wearing red? It better. For Nebraska's sake.
It's a little ironic. Even though they've been the ones pushing a rivalry with Nebraska that has not been reciprocated, it's the Buffs who don't really need the Huskers right now. Colorado has a built-in rivalry building with Colorado State University (whether CU fan wants to acknowledge it or not.) Over the past decade, CU leads the series 6-4, and the teams have split the past eight meetings in Denver. The games have had all the elements of a great rivalry, and if they were in the same conference with any sort of title on the line, no one would argue that CU-CSU was among the nation's great rivalry games.
But CU never has really wanted the CSU rivalry; much like Nebraska has disdained the Buffs. They want Nebraska. It was back in the early 1980s when new CU coach Bill McCartney tried his best to create this border war with Nebraska. He failed for two reasons. One, at the time, Nebraska was still on top of the college football world, and every other team in the Big Eight conference felt the same way about the Cornhuskers as CU did. They all aimed to take down the top dog. And to top it off, McCartney beat Nebraska only three times in 13 seasons.
Secondly, and more important, Nebraska still had Oklahoma on the brain. In those years, the Huskers and Sooners would annually end the Big Eight season with a titanic clash the day after Thanksgiving, the winner moving on to the Orange Bowl and possibly a shot at the national championship. The two schools played numerous epic battles, the kind of games where legends were born.
When the Big 12 came into existence, the Huskers and Sooners were dispatched to different divisions, and the rivalry died. Oklahoma was not left wanting. The Sooners' rivalry with Texas only intensified. It's Nebraska that suffered.
Certainly Nebraska- Colorado does not come close to measuring up as a rivalry ... yet. Despite some success for the Buffs this decade, the all-time series remains very one-sided. But you have to start somewhere, right?
If you only go by the games since the Big 12 was born and they started playing the day after Thanksgiving, Nebraska leads the series just 8-4. That is more like a rivalry. There have been snippets of what this rivalry could someday be, like in 1994, when the two teams met in Lincoln ranked second and third in the polls. Nebraska prevailed and won the national championship - with a big boost from CU's miracle win at Michigan. One-loss Colorado finished third.
With the exception of 2001, when the Buffs drilled then-unbeaten Nebraska, and both teams went to the BCS, the games between the two have not held a lot of national meaning this decade. That could be changing soon with the emergence of Dan Hawkins as the head man of the Buffs and the ability his team showed last fall to rise to almost any occasion. Nebraska has not been Nebraska for several years now, but optimism is running high in the heartland with the arrival of new coach Bo Pelini and the omnipresence of new athletic director and legendary coach Tom Osborne. Still, if Nebraska is going to ever get back to the pinnacle of college football, it needs the one thing only CU can provide: a rival.
So suck it up, Huskers fans. It's time to embrace the rivalry that the Big 12 worked so hard to create. It turns out the conference, and McCartney, were right all along.
by, Mark Knudson, a former major-league and CSU pitcher, writes a weekly column for the Coloradoan.
There are an estimated 25,000 Nebraska football fans living along the Front Range in Colorado. Like everyone else, they're anxious for the start of the new college football season that's less than a month away.
But before the first kickoff, this group of Huskers supporters needs to relay a message back to Lincoln. It's time for Nebraska to accept the University of Colorado as its one true, natural rival, complete with all the contempt and name-calling that goes with it.
The reason is simple. Rivalries make college football tick. You don't think of Ohio State without Michigan. Hard to imagine Oklahoma without Texas, or Florida without Florida State. USC may be on top, but their backers get the most worked up for the annual bash with UCLA.
As things stand right now, Nebraska does not have a true rival. Huskers fans still point to Oklahoma, but the two teams only play twice every four years. You can't have a true rival that isn't on your schedule every year. It's sad, because NU vs. OU was every bit as good as Ohio State-Michigan and the others, but expansion and the emergence of the Big 12 squelched it a decade ago.
With Oklahoma only a semi-regular foe, the Huskers are in need. Quick, name a great college football program that doesn't have a rival? Didn't think so.
CU fans have been aiming at the Nebraska game for decades now. It's the Cornhuskers who've refused to buy in. CU fans have long had the necessary hatred for Nebraska, and the game means more to most Buffs fans than any other on the schedule. Look no further than last season, when most Colorado fans took far more pleasure in beating a downtrodden Nebraska team than they did in a monumental upset of highly ranked Oklahoma.
On the other side, Nebraska fans would rather say nice things about Barry Switzer than admit that CU was a true "rival" for Nebraska. And it takes two to tango, as they say.
So will this, can this, mindset change among those wearing red? It better. For Nebraska's sake.
It's a little ironic. Even though they've been the ones pushing a rivalry with Nebraska that has not been reciprocated, it's the Buffs who don't really need the Huskers right now. Colorado has a built-in rivalry building with Colorado State University (whether CU fan wants to acknowledge it or not.) Over the past decade, CU leads the series 6-4, and the teams have split the past eight meetings in Denver. The games have had all the elements of a great rivalry, and if they were in the same conference with any sort of title on the line, no one would argue that CU-CSU was among the nation's great rivalry games.
But CU never has really wanted the CSU rivalry; much like Nebraska has disdained the Buffs. They want Nebraska. It was back in the early 1980s when new CU coach Bill McCartney tried his best to create this border war with Nebraska. He failed for two reasons. One, at the time, Nebraska was still on top of the college football world, and every other team in the Big Eight conference felt the same way about the Cornhuskers as CU did. They all aimed to take down the top dog. And to top it off, McCartney beat Nebraska only three times in 13 seasons.
Secondly, and more important, Nebraska still had Oklahoma on the brain. In those years, the Huskers and Sooners would annually end the Big Eight season with a titanic clash the day after Thanksgiving, the winner moving on to the Orange Bowl and possibly a shot at the national championship. The two schools played numerous epic battles, the kind of games where legends were born.
When the Big 12 came into existence, the Huskers and Sooners were dispatched to different divisions, and the rivalry died. Oklahoma was not left wanting. The Sooners' rivalry with Texas only intensified. It's Nebraska that suffered.
Certainly Nebraska- Colorado does not come close to measuring up as a rivalry ... yet. Despite some success for the Buffs this decade, the all-time series remains very one-sided. But you have to start somewhere, right?
If you only go by the games since the Big 12 was born and they started playing the day after Thanksgiving, Nebraska leads the series just 8-4. That is more like a rivalry. There have been snippets of what this rivalry could someday be, like in 1994, when the two teams met in Lincoln ranked second and third in the polls. Nebraska prevailed and won the national championship - with a big boost from CU's miracle win at Michigan. One-loss Colorado finished third.
With the exception of 2001, when the Buffs drilled then-unbeaten Nebraska, and both teams went to the BCS, the games between the two have not held a lot of national meaning this decade. That could be changing soon with the emergence of Dan Hawkins as the head man of the Buffs and the ability his team showed last fall to rise to almost any occasion. Nebraska has not been Nebraska for several years now, but optimism is running high in the heartland with the arrival of new coach Bo Pelini and the omnipresence of new athletic director and legendary coach Tom Osborne. Still, if Nebraska is going to ever get back to the pinnacle of college football, it needs the one thing only CU can provide: a rival.
So suck it up, Huskers fans. It's time to embrace the rivalry that the Big 12 worked so hard to create. It turns out the conference, and McCartney, were right all along.
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